Who owns that company? Find out in 2028 for just $207m
A number of outlets in Australia, including Michael West Media and the Canberra Times are reporting on a new business registry being set up by the federal government.
The register will reveal the previously hidden ownership of many Australian businesses and trusts, bolstering transparency. Assistant Treasury Minister, Andrew Leigh has opted for a publicly available register by 2028. a change from 2024, when the government planned an intermediary registry open only to small clique of regulators, academics, law enforcement and journalists.
‘Tax transparency campaigner’ Jason Ward (CICTAR) is quoted extensively, pointing out that Australia lagged behind scores of other nations to reveal “beneficial” owners – that is, who benefits from owners.
“Everyone, including the business community, law enforcement, civil society, really needs to know who the hell they’re dealing with when you’re dealing with a company entity,”
“We’re pretty far behind in beneficial ownership registers, which have been coming around the world in the last several years.”
The reform is said to be funded with a $207 million increase to regulator Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) over two years and Mr Ward said the long and costly implementation came down to the ASIC’s status as a “poor regulator” that was “trying to add new information on top of a fairly dysfunctional system”.
He cited the 2015 case of Gerry and Chris Apostolatos as a prime example of why the reform was needed. The brothers were convicted of animal cruelty when they couldn’t afford to feed their birds and stopped doing so, leading to mass deaths and starvation-related problems. Banned from running a livestock company for 17 years, they founded an aged care company, that would also go bust, owing creditors and requiring dozens of elderly Melburnians to find new homes.
“There are examples where people have gotten licenses to operate aged care who have been convicted of fairly serious crimes in other sectors,” Mr Ward said.